The sophistication and quantity of weapons surrendered by militants in the wake of a new Amnesty Programme points to imminent danger ahead of the 2019 elections, writes James Sowole
When six students of the Lagos Model College, Epe, Lagos State were kidnapped on May 25, 2017, many people thought that the incident was one of those cases that would end once the abductees were released except the abductors became unlucky and arrested.
However, the success of the efforts initiated by the Ondo State Government and coordinated by the Deputy Governor of the state, Hon Agboola Ajayi, and his counterpart from Delta State revealed much about the incident that has serious implication on the security situation in the Niger Delta Region of the country, particularly, the coastal areas.
Though there were no reports of whether government paid ransom to effect the release of the six students, the position of many was that the release of the students was after their captors would have gotten some millions of Naira. The aspect of the release of the students that attracted attention of people within and outside the shores of Nigeria, was the condition given by the kidnappers that they be granted amnesty.
This condition of amnesty led to the setting up of Amnesty Committee by the Ondo State Government under the chairmanship of the deputy governor.
At the launch of the new amnesty initiative on November 9, 2017, the Ondo State Governor, Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN), issued a 21-day ultimatum to all militants in the state to submit their weapons at designated centres and get incorporated into the federal government scheme.
But the calibre and types of arms and ammunition submitted at the riverine Ajapa community in Ese-Odo Local Government area of Ondo State soon stunned the federal government, which reportedly summoned a meeting of governors in the Niger Delta Region.
The militants that submitted their weapons at Ajapa included those that kidnapped the six students of Lagos Model College, Epe. Apart from the kidnap of the school pupils, the repentant militants confessed that they were behind oil pipeline vandalism at Arepo in Ogun State and other several attacks in the riverine areas of Ondo State.
The militants led by their leader, Ogailo Young Iborry (a.k.a O.C), said they embarked on various criminal activities as a means of survival due to joblessness. Iborry and his followers submitted their weapons at the Collection and Documentation of Arms Centre in their hometown, Ajapa Community in Ese-Odo Local Government Area of the state.
Some of the sophisticated arms submitted included Browning wz machine gun, Daewoo K3, Colt Automatic Rifles, General Purpose Machine gun, Breda 30, Fiat Revelli Modelling, AK 47 Rifles, Rocket Launcher, CETME Ameli, Heckler & Koch MG4, Pump Action and some Automatic Cartridges.
Also submitted at the event were military uniforms, police bullet proof vests, dynamites, bombs and helmets.
Iborry, who appreciated the Ondo State and the federal government for the fresh amnesty initiative, linked the source of their arms to the Ijaw/Ilaje crisis of 1998/1999. He also blamed joblessness, poverty and neglect by government for their activities.
“If we may be asked our reasons for embarking on this struggle, our simple asseverations to the public and other concerned authorities is that it is joblessness, suffering, poverty, oppression and neglect by the Government,†he said. The leader of the repentant militant said they decided to dump their oil bunkering business and hatched another game plan to attract the attention of the government.
“As it got to this point, we did not find life very easy. Thus, we relocated to Ogun State and Lagos State, where the Government College Ugbonla, Epe School boys were kidnapped, whose release led to the present arrangement through the courageous efforts of the deputy governors of Ondo and Delta States. We did not kidnap these boys for mere ransom but to negotiate our freedom and full reintegration to civil life,†he noted.
Ajayi, Ondo State Deputy Governor, who is from the local government, described the exercise as impressive as sophisticated ammunition were surrendered.
“Looking at the sophisticated guns and ammunitions surrendered, I’m happy that they (the militants) made promise and fulfilled it,†he said
Ajayi, however, assured them of the readiness of the federal government to fulfill its own promise in providing employment and educational programmes among others for the repentant militants to be self-reliant if they embraced peace. He expressed the hope that nobody would launch attack on the oil producing areas of the state after the submission of arms and ammunition by the militants.
Quite expectedly, the sophistication of the weapons surrendered by the militants has been generating reactions and creating concerns among the people of the state and in the entire Niger Delta Region on the level of insecurity ahead of the 2019 general election.
Disturbed by the development, a presidency source told THISDAY that an emergency meeting of governors in the oil rich Niger Delta Region with top security chiefs was immediately summoned.
THISDAY learnt that the meeting was coordinated by the Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Mallam Lawal Daura.
According to the source, the meeting became necessary because it was widely believed before now that aside the Niger Delta Avengers, no such group had the capacity to pull through a massive arms hold as witnessed in Ondo.
“What we saw was like a film. No one ever envisaged that these young boys could amass this quality of weapons and keep. It is highly embarrassing, to say the least.
“As soon as the photographs were released alongside the story and it was confirmed that yes those arms were from that community aside several others that were recovered from other villages, the president ordered that an appraisal be done immediately.
“That is why all the governors of the Niger Delta region and the security chiefs scheduled to meet because no one had any inkling that apart from the avengers, any such group could muster this massive hold of weapons.
“It is a thing of great concern and worry to every responsible government, because some of the weapons the militants surrendered are not just arms even a country can easily procure, it takes a process. So, the question is: how did these boys get to this level. Some of us are already briefing authorities more efforts should be made by all the governors of the region to adopt the Ondo model to mop up arms because there are likely to be more dangerous game groups with far more sophisticated weapons at their disposal,†he said.
The source said the reason for the meeting was to put in place a machinery to ascertain whether or not there are more of such groups that have yet to turn in their weapons. The latest development had also been causing panic in the region because over the years, conduct of elections in the coastal areas of the country had always been war-like due to the militancy in the region.
In Ondo State, for instance, the incidences of election cancellation in the two riverine local governments of Ilaje and Ese-odo were a common thing due to the level of violence during elections.
Apprehension has therefore gripped the people that the 2019 election may not be an exception with the ongoing efforts at repositioning the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which has its traditional home in the six local governments (Ilaje and Ese-odo inclusive) that constitute Ondo South Senatorial District.
It is the belief by many people that some of the militants may still have some arms and ammunition in their possession.
